Apparently i'm banned... what can i do?

[Deleted]

So I just got banned for "Abuse of the Economy". Me, who has never put together more than 30K gold

I don't think i got hacked, because i use authenticator, so the only explanation i find is that the IP i was using today (i use a VPN service, as i am in China) was flagged for that kind of activity and it affected me. Is this possible?
It's strange because i got the email of being banned right at the moment when i tried to log in and gave me the notice i couldn't log in because i was banned. Is this normally how it happens?

In any case, at this point, what do i have to do? appeal the ban? I have read that appeals rarely work...

[ABEEnr2]

Try to call Blizzard and see

[Ratyrel]

Only way is to call Blizzard, explain, and hope for mercy. Playing through a VPN is probably not allowed, so you have to hope for lenience.

[Glaziola]

My gmail account got locked aswell when somebody tried to login from China and I had to unlock it with my mobile phone. That was probably a hacker and I guess blizzard thought that your case was a hacker too so just temp lock the account for safety. Call them or appeal and get it fixed. Don't mention any VPN's and Bots.

[glowpipe]

Same thing happened to me when i sent large amounts of herbs to my alt. herbs i farmed myself. Its an automatic "bot-defence" Which obviously do not work.

Just call them. I had my account back within 10 minutes

[Deleted]

Don't mention any VPN's and Bots.

Oh, i had asked them before about the VPN, as it had given me some trouble by rejecting a payment in blizzard store. They told me that they don't forbid VPN use (apparently a lot of players from Australia use it), but they don't offer support for it. So, telling them i use VPN shouldn't be a problem as it's not a violation of the TOS.
And for the record, i never botted, nor did anything against the TOS. I'm extremely confused I didn't even send large amounts of anything, whenever i do the JCing ore shuffle is maybe like 10-15 stacks, which shouldn't trigger any kind of alert -_-

I'll have to wait for them to open the call center, then, it's offline atm. Do they have skype number?

[Gimlix]

Greets,

So you were banned for abusing the economic you say, and your IP is coming from china?
It's clear in my eyes already, blizzard thought you were a chinese gold farmer on someone's account
Doesn't matter that you didn't farm anything, you were from a chinese IP. Automatic Ban =P

[The Glitch]

Oh, i had asked them before about the VPN, as it had given me some trouble by rejecting a payment in blizzard store. They told me that they don't forbid VPN use (apparently a lot of players from Australia use it), but they don't offer support for it. So, telling them i use VPN shouldn't be a problem as it's not a violation of the TOS.
And for the record, i never botted, nor did anything against the TOS. I'm extremely confused I didn't even send large amounts of anything, whenever i do the JCing ore shuffle is maybe like 10-15 stacks, which shouldn't trigger any kind of alert -_-

I'll have to wait for them to open the call center, then, it's offline atm. Do they have skype number?

They have online assistance, go to your battle.net account and open a ticket/online support convo through that^

[Deleted]

They have online assistance, go to your battle.net account and open a ticket/online support convo through that^

Yes, that's what i'm going to do. Still need to wait for 10am west coast time (1am over herer x_x).

[The Glitch]

Yes, that's what i'm going to do. Still need to wait for 10am west coast time (1am over herer x_x).

Oh right time differences ...durp! lol.

Well they will beable to help you, I wouldn't worry too much Goodluck^

[TheNationGamer]

Do you purchase large amount of ore? in short periods of time

If so that may have triggered it or you were botting...try appealing it a few times if its upheld than you obviously did something wrong

I would never use free vpns because botters and other hackers tend to use that if you do use a vpn...get a paid vpn thats 100% your own ip

however since you had a authenticator, its possible you can get it unlocked

[Frolk]

You could contact Blizzard Support before making a thread like this, or look on the other 99999 "i got banned"-threads and check those outs

[Deleted]

Do you purchase large amount of ore? in short periods of time

If so that may have triggered it or you were botting...try appealing it a few times if its upheld than you obviously did something wrong

I would never use free vpns because botters and other hackers tend to use that if you do use a vpn...get a paid vpn thats 100% your own ip

however since you had a authenticator, its possible you can get it unlocked

How much is "large"? I did the shuffle a couple of times, and compared to the amounts i read in the forums i think i didn't use that much. I might have bought maybe 500 of kyparite and 200 of ghost iron. Is that a lot?

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You could contact Blizzard Support before making a thread like this, or look on the other 99999 "i got banned"-threads and check those outs

Sorry, i am a bit freaked out, because i was totally not expecting this... but from what i read, the only option they gave in the email was sending an appeal... I mean, in that same email they say that this kind of ban is only used for people who has been violating the TOS for a long time, and that violators receive warnings before this (which i didn't, mostly because i never violated the TOS).

[Tziva]

I know you're waiting to talk to them direct so you're already on the right track.

I will say I've known a number of people who have had an undeserved ban triggered, either by mistake or because their account was hacked, and I don't know a single one of them who didn't ultimately get it cleared up with Blizzard and get the account back under their control. So good luck It might take some patience and effort but you'll probably be fine.

[Deleted]

I know you're waiting to talk to them direct so you're already on the right track.

I will say I've known a number of people who have had an undeserved ban triggered, either by mistake or because their account was hacked, and I don't know a single one of them who didn't ultimately get it cleared up with Blizzard and get the account back under their control. So good luck It might take some patience and effort but you'll probably be fine.

Thanks!

Yeah, talked to the girl by phone, she told me that not being a GM she couldn't do anything about it and that the appropriate course was to open a ticket to appeal the ban. Did that... so well, only remains waiting...
I hate this, because it feels like doing administration paperwork and feeling like you submitted the wrong form or that you didn't enclose one of the required certificates x_x

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Well, thanks to all who posted
Must have been a mistake, because they gave me back the control of my account without much explanation of what had happened, didn't even reset the password, and just adviced me to change my game-associated email, just in case.

[KCguy]

Only way is to call Blizzard, explain, and hope for mercy. Playing through a VPN is probably not allowed, so you have to hope for lenience.

I was going to say that what would be pointless. They don't have access to your account other than doing server transfers, being unable to get into your account etc. They will just tell you to open a ticket to those Blizzard people can check as they have access to your actual account in game.

[reckoner04]

Only way is to call Blizzard, explain, and hope for mercy. Playing through a VPN is probably not allowed, so you have to hope for lenience.

What would be reasons for not allowing VPNs?

[Deleted]

Why are you playing from a China IP if you don't mind me asking.

Well, i'm working in China that would be one reason.
The Chinese IP itself is not a problem, the problem is that to connect to facebook and youtube i need a vpn to tunnel through the Great Firewall. This VPN makes it look like my connection is actually sited in San Francisco. Theoretically this would be good, but VPN services are also commonly used by people doing "bad" things, which leads to some webs and providers to ban certain VPN servers.
This happened to me with the blizzard store once: i was trying to buy an expansion as a present for a friend, and blizzard store blocked my ability to pay from that web. The customer service guy told me it could have been because of the VPN, they tend to restrict from which IP ranges they receive credit card payments.

[bbr]

Never heard of this one before..
In the past "abusing the economy" was never grounds for banning...

I wonder what changed.

[Deleted]

Never heard of this one before..
In the past "abusing the economy" was never grounds for banning...

I wonder what changed.

It looks like my account had been suspected of trading real currency for in-game gold or goods, from what i've been told after. They didn't explain how they arrived at that suspicion, though They adviced me to change the email associated to my wow account.
In any case, got account back so all is good!